Dear gents & ladies,

Just a simple question from a simple traveller. I always hear a lot about the decline of Skywards and that there is so much better out there. Now keep in mind that i am very happy with EK, am PLat, passed the threshold of 150k in 6 months again so my question is :

1) Am i missing out on something by focussing my travel on EK, free to chose who i want to fly with.
2) Who is better out of Dubai?

Destinations frequently travelled :

Middle East all
Africa most
Occasional Europe, USA
Asia frequent.

Class of travel : J
AVG Tier miles per annum : 180-240 k

Tried Singapore Airlines but very dissapointing equipment ex Dubai.

Gents enlighten me please. Oh yes am married to EK crew so private travel perks outside of my work travel dont really interest me. All my miles go into upgrades to F.

My other major programme is British Airways' Executive Club.

I only ever use my Avios (miles) to upgrade from World Traveller Plus to Club World. BA allows me to do this online at the point of booking. With Emirates' I understand that if one chooses to book a reward flight online it is only possible to upgrade by 'phone. There is no guarantee that, having booked, you won't end up being unable to upgrade. (I am quite new to Skywards; please let me know if I have got this wrong.) This would be totally unacceptable to me.

This is why, for me, BAEC is a better programme than Skywards.

No doubt, others will have different priorities.

Award availability can be checked in advance of any booking.

If your ticket is eligible and the award is available, I can think of no reason why you would be refused.

I have a life time gold with BA and I can honestly say I see very little where BA is better than EK. Award bookings not as easy, cabin crew generally not as pleasant and the overall experience not as good. I would say in answer to the question. Probably a Far East airline would be a better comparison or maybe Qatar. Having said that maybe as Qatar is oneworld that might be the best choice. Cathay and Qatar good quality alternatives I think.

I deliberately limited my comments to how I saw the two programmes.

My only experience of Emirates' is in First; BA's First pales in comparison. It's no better than a really nice business class.

BA crews can be inconsistent. The best are very good indeed.

You might need a few more tier miles if they raise the plat thresholds. Concerns about too many plats apparently....

More concerns About Gold level apparently . Plat is still 3x gold, highest probability is the QF plats.

But rumours will be rumours

Nope it's the plats. I think they may make it so it's only points gained in j and f or reduce the y miles. They have 20k golds and 5k plats but expected 2k... Numbers aren't working for them...

Are they heading down the PPS route like SQ where its dollars spent in premium cabins? on SQ its $25k in premium cabins only to get you in that club then work your way up.

AH thats ok then,

Dollar spend in premium cabin isnt so bad for me, shorthaul never racks up miles for me. But i can imagine there are quite a few plats who travel quite a lot in Y, or so i have been told.

Otherwise settle for Gold, and spend the rest elsewhere.

Giving is easy, taking back is a dash harder.

Strange though the First class lounges are always empty.

I prefer BAEC to Skywards, but generally prefer flying EK to BA, especially in F which is not only an amazing product but generally better priced that BA F. I only travel in F if the increased fare from J is not too excessive, which is very much more often the case with EK on the routes I seem to fly on.

I do a lot of Africa and prefer to avoid the African airlines, so EK has been a lifeline for me. I would add that Qatar joining OW has also increased my mile earning ability, although its not quite to the standard of BA or EK, but its not bad. Normally I take most of the year to re-qualify for Gold on BA. Now with Qatar I am almost there 2 months into my new BA year.